Physical Therapist: What Do They Do And Their Work Environment

All the people from different age groups, including the seniors and the newborns, have the basic need of moving and functioning. It is the reason why physical therapists are needed by people of any age group. A physical therapist is an expert professional when it comes to how the body moves and functions. Physical therapist promotes healthy lifestyle, wellness, and educate people how to prevent loss of movement and injuries.

Physical therapists aid people in maintaining their normal functions by preventing future deterioration of bodily functions, which can be caused by illnesses, injuries, and disabilities. They also help people in making environmental adaptations in order for people to function properly and independently in their environment. You can see many physical therapists helping various age groups ranging from infants with musculoskeletal defects during birth up to the adults and senior citizens with sciatica or other forms of ailments due to after effects of an injury and aging.

Physical therapist or PTs can apply a variety of techniques in treating their patients. Exercise therapies are the best known methods used by physical therapist. Other methods used by certified physical therapists include spinal or joint manipulation, muscles massage, and other forms of physical therapy. The equipments used by PT’s may include cold and hot pack, ultrasound, and electrical simulation devices.

A professional physical therapist works with their patient in dealing with the challenges that their patients face and hinders their normal functioning. The main goal of physical therapist is to assist their patients regain their normal mobility and functioning so that they can return to their normal life in their community and especially at home. A physical therapist may collaborate with their patients’ doctor and other healthcare professionals involved in the patients health care in order to come up with a physical therapy program that focuses on the recovery goal and speedy rehabilitation of the patient.

Work Areas For Physical Therapist

Physical therapists are graduates of college education and are required to pass national and state licensing exams before they can perform physical therapy procedures. Some of the physical therapist continued their education and earned a clinical doctorate degree or a master’s degree. Some of the physical therapist further trained and earned their certification in some areas of specialization. These specializations include orthopaedic therapy and geriatric physical therapy. Physical therapists have the ability to work anywhere once they have earned their licensed.

You can usually find them working in:

Hospitals

Rehabilitation facilities

Sports centers

Nursing homes

A number of academic institutions

Public and private clinics

Various offices of therapists, both physical and occupational

Private homes for home health care services

List Of Injuries, Ailments And Other Reasons Why People Visit A Physical Therapist

Muscular dystrophy

Arthritis

Stroke

Incontinence

Brain Injury

Cerebral Palsy

Limb amputation

Infant disabilities

Multiple sclerosis

Spinal cord injury

Orthopedic injuries

Balance disorders

Neurological disorders

Neck and Back pain

Long term breathing problems

Recovery after pregnancy

Fitness and Wellness Education

Heart and Stroke rehabilitation

Recovering And Improving Patients Abilities

A physical therapist introduces methods on how to improve a person’s overall wellness and fitness. Being physically fit can help promote an individual’s good health and long life. The physical therapist also observes how a person moves in their community as well as the person’s own personal functioning skills. It is important to examine the abilities of a person in order to know which functions needs to be improved and what methods should be used.

The programs that are introduced by physical therapists may use technological gadgets to efficiently reach the goals of the therapy program. The main areas that physical therapist look to improve on an individual includes the speed, balance, mobility, flexibility, strength, movement, respiratory endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and coordination.

With the help of physical therapists, they can even help people with disabilities to return to their jobs. Through ergonomic work station evaluations, work injury prevention education, and providing recommendations for accommodations in the patients workplace, physical therapist are able to perform physical work and performance evaluations of their patients. The physical therapist can then assist its patient by providing ways on how their patients can perform their job efficiently without their disability getting on their way.

What Is Included In A Physical Therapy Session

A physical therapist presents a home exercise to their patients and addresses all the risk factors that they find to their patient after evaluation. Certified physical therapist provides pain reduction treatments and suggests ways on how to prevent future injuries. There are many things that physical therapist ask during their patients evaluations such as when did you first feel the physical pain, what are the things that make the pain better or worse, and your daily activities.

The physical therapist then conducts a physical examination to know which certain movements trigger and worsen the pains. They will also evaluate your muscles to see if there are any spasms or increased tensions and they will also evaluate your posture. Checking you reflexes, motion of the joints and your mobility is also included in the evaluation during your first visit with a physical therapist.

Physical therapist then comes up with a therapy program depending on their patient’s conditions. A patient may be recommended with a home program such as exercise and some simple first aid and some required visits to the physical therapist office in order for the therapist to perform some advance physical therapy procedures.

The overall goal of the physical therapist is to eliminate the pain as well as to enhance the functions of their patients. The physical therapist will try to eradicate the cause of the problem and will provide prevention tips to their patients in order to avoid the same problem in the future. Most of the tips provided by the physical therapist include the alteration of daily activities that mostly triggered the problem of the patient in the first place. They will also suggest some basic equipment such as wrist rest, lumbar chairs and other support equipments in order for the patients to avoid reinjuring themselves.